Going South, Then West

My goodness, Tuesday was the presidential primary in Connecticut and I did not even hear about it until after it was over! A few days earlier in the news, they mentioned the Republican primary coming up, because Mitt Romney made a campaign stop in the state, but they did not say when. I guess that shows how little interest the local voters had in it. Perhaps if it didn’t look like Romney’s nomination was a sure thing. Or perhaps if the Democratic Party wasn’t so strong in this state (nobody ran against Obama, of course).

But you probably came here to find out about my journey from Connecticut to Kentucky. Along that line, it took until 12:30 to get everything packed, and another hour and a half to get it in my Buick. In fact, preparations for the trip took so long that I skipped lunch. You will probably never again see the car packed as heavily as it is now; Leive definitely gave me too many outfits to bring. In the end I had to leave behind a few things I was planning to bring: a case of bottled water, and a dozen rolls of bathroom tissue. Then because the landlady was out, I had to leave the key and my last check in the mailbox. All things considered, I left a lot less to pick up then my former room mate did.

I left the Danbury neighborhood around 2:15 PM. At 2:30 I entered New York, at 3:40 I reached Pennsylvania. Up until now I hadn’t decided whether I would go south first, or west first. The route I took last December, going due west until reaching Ohio and then turning south, would have put me in a region with lower gas prices, but it also would have meant driving with the sun in my eyes for most of Wednesday, and I definitely didn’t want that. The plan I chose was to take Interstate 81 south across Pennsylvania, and then make the west turn in Maryland, when I got on I-70. That worked; I had the sun on my right more often than in front of me. And because I’m starting in the morning, today I will only have to worry about glare for half of today’s driving.

Traffic had been heavy in New York and northern Pennsylvania, and in the neighborhood of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre I also had to go through road construction. After Wilkes-Barre, though, there were fewer cars and trucks, and the road got gentler as we left the mountains. Consequently I had a nice, uneventful drive through the southern part of the state. There the scenery was mainly farms; mountains were still visible, but they were far away. The only stop I made was at a small Pennsylvania town with the strange name of Nuangola, where I filled my gas tank and got something to eat. At 8:05 PM I crossed over into Maryland. The sun set about that time, so I also started looking for a place to stay overnight. I got off the highway in Hancock, MD, a small town with brick buildings and narrow streets.

According to the map, Hancock is in the narrowest part of the state; here it looks like Maryland is only three miles wide. A sign advertised two motels, but I found neither, so I stopped at the place I did find, a small no-frills place called the Hill Top Inn. At $40, the price was right, but getting comfortable here was a learning curve. They have wi-fi, but it took until this morning to get a connection, and although it looked like I had to turn the shower faucet on all the way, to get hot water, I really only had to turn it halfway; I stood in a cold shower for several minutes before I figured that out. Finally, the room has no telephone, which could have been a challenge if I did not bring my cell phone with me.

Okay, it’s almost quarter after 8. They don’t serve breakfast here, so I’d better get going. Again, see you in Kentucky!